Defense rests without witnesses in Uber ride murder trial

The defense has rested without calling any witnesses in the murder trial of a man accused of killing a South Carolina college student who mistakenly got into what she thought was her Uber ride

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The defense rested without calling any witnesses Monday in the murder trial of a man accused of killing a South Carolina college student who mistakenly got into what she thought was her Uber ride. The judge sent the jury home for the day, scheduling closing arguments for Nathaniel Rowland's trial for Tuesday morning. He faces up to life in prison if he is convicted of kidnapping and murder in the March 2019 killing of 21-year-old Samantha Josephson. Prosecutors also rested their case Monday after calling nearly three dozen witnesses. The next-to-last person on the stand was a pathologist who testified there were more than 100 stab wounds on Josephson's body. There was also so little blood left in her body — 20 milliliters (1.3 tablespoons) when a body typically has at least 4 liters (1 gallon) — that workers at her autopsy struggled to get enough blood for routine testing, said Dr. Thomas Beaver, who conducted the examination of the woman after her death.